Los Angeles — The Good, the Bad and the Truly Ugly

Not really. LA is an awful place. It is 469 square miles of bumper to bumper traffic; sinus clogging air pollution; starless nights and unrelenting summer sun; alleys that go nowhere and

The Good: Christina, who is not blond, blew out the birthday candle that came with the — very, very good — doughnuts we had for dessert at the Waterloo & City gastropub in Culver City. It’s just one of many great places to eat in LA County. Photo by BF Newhall

ten-lane freeways that if it’s rush hour also go nowhere. Miles and miles of homely two-story apartment buildings without enough parking, and slap-dash mini malls also without enough parking. Palm trees nobody’s pruned in years. And did I mention traffic?

Los Angeles is a place where the women are blond, the men are brunette, the swimming pools

are kidney-shaped and the lighting is neon. It’s a place where, if you miss enough freeway exits, you can end up in Death Valley, where at least you’ll find a parking space. Or Long Beach, where you won’t.

The Ugly: A palm tree nobody’s bothered to prune. Photo by BF Newhall

If I’m so down on Los Angeles, why do I bother to write about it, let alone go there?

Because it is that singular sweet spot on earth where my pushing-30 daughter has parked herself — and her future.

And mine too, if I don’t watch out.

When I’m 99 and my knees are creaky and I can’t find my car keys because my kids have confiscated them, and the two of them (Christina in LA, Peter in Minnesota) have decided to pry Jon and me loose from our house in the trees with its sliver of a view of the beautiful San Francisco Bay, and Christina wins (loses?) the coin toss, and with that the two kids proceed to pack up our stuff and move us to LA — that’s when I’d better be ready to look past the ugly and see the good in Los Angeles.

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More Good: A butterfly comes in for a landing on a lantana blossom at the Butterfly Pavilion of the Los Angeles County Natural History Museum, one of LA’s numerous first-rate attractions. Photos below by BF Newhall

More Bad: It’s night. No stars, but lots of florescent and neon light.

More ugly: An LA alley — a paved-over space that could be growing something, like some trees maybe.

More Beautiful: The Ritz-Carlton is on the left. It’s big. It’s pretentious. But it’s beautiful. Too bad about the messy telephone poles all over LA.

Kidney-shaped pool at an apartment complex — one of thousands? Hundreds of thousands?

Comments

Boy, do I love the way you write! Direct, from the heart, no detours, passion, humor, humor, humor, and sarcasm born from spending a fair amount of time observing the human condition. And oh by the way, I had the chance to sit down with Peter yesterday and, thus, found out about your blog. Peter and I met at a 2 hour brainstorming session on the 15th. We agreed to meet yesterday and see how we could help each other. I help people and companies grow sales and typically web development companies need a little nudge with that.

If your daughter has the same maturity and balance you and your husband ought to write a Spock-like book on raising kids.

SF is city #3 on my all-time list of beautiful places to be. Chicago (born there) and NY nose you out. Spent a significant amount of time in the vicinity (Mountain View) in the 80’s working for a start up med company. Many good times were had in the bay.

Just wanted to introduce myself. I’ll be a frequent visitor to your site.

Hey Barb,
I love LA (live here for 30 years) and love, love San Francisco. And, so glad your daughter parked herself here. Just think, we could be neighbors in 20 years or so. Really, there are so many good things about Los Angeles, you will be amazed! Trust me!

Judy, I wonder if my problem with LA is that, as a visitor and tourist, I spend so much time on those wretched freeways. I notice that once I get inside one of the great restaurants or museums or somebody’s house LA is pretty nice — and very interesting.

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ABOUT BARBARA

Barbara Falconer Newhall reports from the scene on life with an unruly garden, techie husband, far-flung, grown-up kids -- and a rocky spiritual journey, which she describes in her prize-winning book, Wrestling with God: Stories of Doubt and Faith.

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